Your first look at the mammoth apartment building Fairfield Residential wants to build on old MKT depot site in West End

For several "views" showing how Fairfield's proposed apartment building and garage will fit into the West End, check out the portfolio below.

For six years there’s been a gaping hole at Ross Avenue and Houston Street, which had been the site of the historic Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad depot till TCI West End Inc. illegally razed the structure only to find itself on the losing end of a court battle with the city of Dallas. But two months back there were signs of life: An applicant had come before the Landmark Commission’s Central Business District/West End Task Force with plans to build a five-story apartment building and six-story parking garage on the vacant lot.

At the time we’d asked for an early look-see at the development; and at the time the developer, Fairfield Residential, said they’d rather wait till all the details were sorted out. Because building in the West End Historic District is no easy feat, given the fact that anything new constructed there has to look like something old, which is to say it has to look like it belongs in a “turn-of-the-century red brick warehouse district of one- to six-story structures oriented to nearby railroad yards, including governmental, office and light industrial structures representing low-scale, urban, mercantile history of late 19th century Dallas.”

And that ain’t easy, especially when you’re planning on building something as mammoth as Fairfield’s proposed development. Finally, though, Fairfield returned to the task force yesterday with the renderings you see below, which received the blessings of the task force. Next, the certificate of appropriateness is sent to the Landmark Commission, and if it’s approved there, next stop are the building officials who will officially okee-doke the deal. But no need to wait to see how the thing’s supposed to look …